As adults going about our lives, there is always a risk that something will happen hat requires us to get medical care from a doctor. We’re fortunate in that we have a multitude of treatment options, but one of the best can be found by going to the local urgent care. These are walk in clinics that are located in towns and cities across the United States. Many find these clinics to be convenient because you don’t have to make an appointment beforehand. Urgent care is staffed with highly trained medical professionals that can work with and treat a wide variety of medical issues. This article will take a look at several medical services that urgent care can provide for the 3 million patients who visit each and every week.
- Annual Flu Shot: One important service that urgent care provides for its patients is access to the annual flu shot. Every flu season, urgent care clinics make the flu shot available to anyone who walks in needing one. No matter what age you are, it’s always important to get the annual flu shot because it can greatly reduce your risk of catching the flu virus.
- Treatment for Poison Ivy: Another important service that urgent care provides is treatment for exposure to poison ivy. This is more common than you might think, as poison ivy can be found in every state except Alaska and Hawaii. Furthermore, almost 85% of people are allergic to poison ivy, with the allergy being the reason people develop a rash when exposed to it. If you develop a poison ivy rash, you can go to urgent care and get treatment that will help with it.
- Treatment of Sports Injuries: A third service that urgent care provides is treating common sports injuries. These are the kinds of injuries that anyone can incur while playing sports: sprained ankles, sprained wrists, scraped knees and elbows, or even severe muscle strain. Urgent care can also perform X-rays on an injury if it is deemed necessary.
- Treatment of Cold and Flu Symptoms: A fourth service that urgent care provides, and one of its most common, is treatment of cold and flu symptoms. Americans suffer from about 1 billion colds each year, so it’s no surprise to hear that the most common diagnosis in an urgent care center is an upper respiratory condition. Doctors working at an urgent care can quickly check your symptoms and determine whether a cold or flu is developing and prescribe the appropriate treatment without the patient having to go through a long wait to be seen.
- Testing for STDs and HIV: And finally, a fifth service that urgent care can provide is testing for STDs and HIV. These are both incredibly important tests for anyone who believes they’ve been infected with either a sexually transmitted disease, or worse, HIV itself, since both can have life altering consequences if treatment isn’t begun immediately. This is one reason that urgent care being a walk in clinic is extremely beneficial, because if you suspect you’ve been infected or exposed, then you can simply walk in to the clinic to have testing done without having to schedule an appointment and waste valuable treatment time.
In conclusion, there are many important medical services that urgent care can provide for the patients who come in every day. These services include, but are far from limited to, providing the annual flu shot, treating allergic reactions to poison ivy, treating common sports injuries, treating cold and flu symptoms, and testing for STDs and HIV. This is just a small sample of the medical services that urgent care can provide.